SAN JOSE, California, August 25 /PRNewswire/ --

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the production
availability of its new AT25DF081, the industry's first 8-megabit Serial
Flash device capable of operating at 1.8-volts. With a low-voltage operating
range of 1.65V to 1.95V, the AT25DF081 operates at the same voltage range as
many current and upcoming sub-90nm ASICs and processors/controllers which
allows system designers to finally create applications that can utilize a
single supply voltage for all components in the system while also saving a
significant amount of cost. Unlike devices that are screened to operate at
lower voltages and subsequently de-rated, the AT25DF081 was designed
specifically to operate at 1.8 volts, enabling the device to retain the same
high levels of performance as its 3-volt counterpart.

Atmel developed the AT25DF081 based on direct, specific needs from its
customers who use the devices to store both program code and data in
battery-powered, portable consumer products such as personal media
players (PMPs) and smartphones. The AT25DF081 addresses the key, main
concerns when choosing to use Serial Flash for portable designs. First and
foremost, because the AT25DF081 is used as a boot and code shadowing Flash
memory, read performance from the Serial Flash is critical in order to keep
the applications' power-up boot time as short as possible to appease the
instant-on expectations of consumers. The 66MHz operation of the
AT25DF081 addresses this concern and can enable an application to shadow the
entire contents of the memory in under a very short 130 milliseconds.

The 1.8-volt capability of the AT25DF081 solves the additional, common
issues that plague any portable design. By having a complete system operate
at a unified 1.8 volts, system designs can be fully optimized to provide the
lowest power consumption and longest battery life possible. Precious board
space, weight, and system cost can also be significantly reduced by
simplifying the embedded power-supply circuitry and eliminating the need for
an additional LDO (low dropout regulator) and associated passive components
that would otherwise be necessary for a 3-volt Serial Flash memory. In
addition, since the AT25DF081 can operate at the same voltage as the ASIC or
processor/controller, there is no need for level shifters on control and data
lines, resulting in further savings.

"Ever since Atmel introduced the world's first Serial Flash in 1997, we
have been a consistent leader in Serial Flash memories and have continued to
work diligently to align our product roadmaps with our customers', ensuring
that we define the right products to meet their future design needs," stated
Richard De Caro, Atmel's Director of Strategic Marketing for its Memory
Business Unit. "The AT25DF081 is a clear case in which we listened to our
customers and developed a product that allows them to design their
applications to be smaller, lighter, and last longer, all at a lower cost and
without sacrificing performance," continued De Caro.

Availability and Pricing

The AT25DF081 is available now for both samples and production volumes.
The AT25DF081 is offered in three different package options comprising of an
8-lead, 150-mil wide "narrow-body" SOIC, an 8-contact, 5mm x 6mm x 0.6mm
Ultra Thin DFN (UDFN), and an extremely small, 0.4mm thin 11-ball dBGA
(WLCSP). In 10,000 unit quantities, prices start at US$0.66, US$0.70, and
US$0.83 for the three respective package options.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio
frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest
intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide
the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer,
industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

(C) 2008 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), logo and
combinations thereof, and others, are registered trademarks, or trademarks of
Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be
trademarks of others.

Information:

Atmel's AT25DF081 product information may be retrieved at,
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4220
For further information on Atmel's Serial Flash offerings, visit
http://www.atmel.com/products/SFlash/default.asp

Press Contacts:
    Richard De Caro, Director of Strategic Marketing -- Memory Business Unit
    Tel: +1-916-933-1033, Email: richard.decaro@atmel.com

    Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
    Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com

Web site: http://www.atmel.com